This guide was originally written by hks489. Unfortunately the original thread was lost. To make matters worse hks489 also lost the copy on his hard drive. Luckily for us Evil Monkey managed to find a copy of the guide being posted on another website.

PvP Poison Necromancer v2.0​

(I am in the process of updating this guide to come in line with the 1.11 patch, the work is still hks489’s in the majority, I have just added some useful info, ie breakpoints, blocking formula. I have also removed references to the marrowalk bug which was removed in 1.11) any things missing/need changing let me know, this isnt final!

I’ve been visiting this site for awhile but I haven’t seen a poison necro pvp guide so…. here it is! This is mainly a guide for pub duelling, since most people aren’t involved in clans or that honour thing so in my guide, everything goes, although I did put in a part for honour duelling.

To start off, here’s some personal info, I go by the login of “poison4899”, my screen name is “Japgirlmacker” maybe some of you have seen me around the pub duels. My first character was a 90 bone necro. Although it did well, there were too many around and I wanted to make a necro that’s less used, thus a poison necro. This is my first time writing a guide so excuse my format mistakes or whatever… The format for this guide is stolen from “Thekbob” from his Commando guide. Hope you don’t mind!! Credit given where credit’s due.

*Corpse Explosion is a pre requisite to poison nova so is needed anyways but it is very useful for baal running, as nova itself is slow and laggy so shouldn’t be used, this allows you to contribute with curses along side

*Bone spear, again a p[re requisite spell, but this is also useful in duelling, when your nova has left someone on 1hp, their life regen can sometimes kick in, meaning that the golems aura is not powerful enough to kill them, this is where bone spear can come in a nice fast ranged attack to drop them

*Raise skeleton/mage/revive – you can get a pretty big army even with only 1 point, makes PvM a lot easier, and is very useful if you are fighting something like a FoH pala (more targets to kill before he can hit you)

*Summon resist/skeleton mastery – these just make your skeletons a lot stronger, again, without these they are a little too weak to be very useful

You’re never really finished as you can continue to put points Bone Prison until you’re 99

II. STAT POINTS ALLOCATION​

Strength: Enough to wear equipment. My poisenmancer uses base str but that is only because his gear fits perfectly, you need very good gear for this.

Dexterity: Enough to give you maximum block, or 75%.

Total Blocking = (Blocking x (Dexterity - 15)) / (Character Level x 2)
Blocking = A total of the Blocking on all of your items

Vitality: As with all other builds, all you can spare. Unfortunatly necromancer has bad returns on vit.

1vit=2life
1vit=1sta

Energy: This is very debatable for it depends on the items you’re able to get. If you’re rich, then you can afford numerous +mana items or charms, so you don’t need any points here. If you’re poor, then put a few points in to make sure you get enough to use without chugging a mana potion every 5 seconds.

1ene=1mana

Max Block vs All Vit

This is an ongoing question, and there are definite advantages to both sides. But this is the way I look at it. For my nec to hit 75% block at lvl 90 I need 170 base dex (rest from gear) so that is 145vit less, or 190life (around 300life after bo) now in end game gear you will get 2k life anyways so 300 is a small fraction, then compare than to negating entirely 75% of melee attacks  its an easy choice for me!

Breakpoints

Faster Cast Rate

Here you only have 2 main choices 75% or 125% if you want to tele effectively. 75% allows you to do higher damage  while 125% allows you to drops your novas easier. Your choice 

(now, before you go head over heals for deaths web , deaths web helps a lot against those chars with alot of life and/or stacked poison resists. Which you will find is relatively uncommon because the poisonmancer is a rare class so many people don’t carry the gear with them to counter it. So for general pubby duelling I prefer HoTo, as this offers resists and fcr too (allowing you to hit 125%fcr)

3) Blackbog’s Sharp: +4 to Poison Nova and Explosion, and +5 to Poison Dagger. Other stats useless unless you plan to stab someone… which is something this build is not good at. (Damn cheap)

4) Blackhand’s Key: The staple of all mid-level necros. +2 to necro skills, fast cast, it’s still a good wand to use if u can’t get anything else. (Somewhat cheap)

SHIELD:

1) Homunculus: In my opinion, the best necro shield you can use for PvP. +2 necro skills, all resist, mana regen, and the insane block rate. Really, can’t get better than that. (Medium cheap)

2) Darkforce Spawn: This shield is also quite good, but it’s more for fight against casters because of the low block rate. What really stands out about this shield is the fast cast. You’ll need to get a +3 to Poison and Bone, the rest aren’t much use. (Very expensive) - if you are fighting a caster with stack poisen resists swap hoto for deaths web and homunculus for this beauty)

3)Trangs wing: combined with trang belt and gloves this offers -25%enemy resist which is a very nice and very cheap way of drastically increasing your damage also possible to max block quite easily

4) Lidless Wall: Good overall shield for any caster, with +1 to skill, fast cast, and increase mana 10%. (cheap)

5) Stormshield: I listed this mainly for the damage reduction it gives and the cool block rate, though the strength req might be too much for most people. (medium)

6)Spirit: this is for those people who can’t afford darkforce spawn, or need the extra 5%fcr to hit a fcr breakpoint. This is a very cheap and powerful shield, with resists/skills and the very nice fhr and resists but requires massive strength, I don’t recommend putting points in str just to wear this. (very cheap->expensive)

There are many many many choices here varying from pure +2nec skills 20%fcr and 1 socket, to +3pbskills 20%fcr 2 sockets and also +2nec 20%fcr +life + resists 2sockets (these vary from expensive to astronomical) – my preferred is 3pbskills 20%fcr 2sockets with 2x5/-5 facets

2) Harlequins Crest, aka Shako: Good for any build, +2 to skills, 10% damage reduced, and a ****load of health and mana, though it looks crappy on your dude. ( Medium) – if you don’t need the fcr from a circlet this IS the choice

3) Peasant Crown: a cheap alternative to shako. It’s not bad if you can’t get the stuff mentioned above. ( Cheap)

4) Crown of Ages: I suggest this because this is a godly helm. +1 to skills, all resist, fast hit recovery, and socketed!!! But the thing is… the strength req for this is quite beyond reach for most necros. (Crazy expensive)

ARMOR:

1) Enigma: Hands down, the best armor there is. +2 to skills, damage reduced, + life, and + insane strength. Use this, and the strength problem you always had will be a thing of the past…. Not to mention the teleport… (Expensive)

3) Frostburns: Only useful thing on this is the huge boost to mana. (Cheap)

BOOTS:

1) Sandstorm Trek: What you really want from this boot is the fast hit recovery. The + strength and vitality is also nice. ( Medium)

2)Marrowwalks: The mods on the boots aren’t that shabby. Meeting the strength req might be a hassle though. Some more mana, skele mastery and some str/dex, nothing out of this world, but are very nice none the less (become abit redundant since the marrowalk bug was removed in patch 1.11) ( Medium)

3)Silkweave: these offer a very nice mana boost (cheap)

4) Tearhaunch: Nothing special about these boots except for the +10 all res (Very Cheap)

3) Trang-Oul’s Girth: Can’t be frozen, nice + to mana and life. Especially useful if paired with Trang’s gloves. Gives nice cold res and mana regen. Combined with trangs shield as well you can get -25% enemy poisen resist, always good (Somewhat expensive)

AMULETS:

1) Crafted Amulets: What your looking for is a +2 nec skill, 10%+(prefer 15%+) fast cast, all res. (Hard to make, Very expensive to trade)

Poor Man’s Setup:
I don’t suggest you make a poison necro if you can not afford the items mentioned in the average player’s section. Although it is viable to have cheaper equipment for PvM, you’ll get slaughtered in PvP.

hellfire torch
anni
skillers (still got to get these) - I will get 4xpb skillers 12%fhr and 5xpbskillers with life eventually, just plain ones to start with though hehe
4x5%fhr sc
6x5res all sc

stats:
base str
170 dex
rest vit
base energy

I currently have 1.5klife at lvl 86 and 800mana, I hit the 125%fcr bp I have 75@ res in hell 40%fhr my bone armor absorbs 455(i think thats the number lol) damage and my nova deals 7.8k damage with just 1 plain skiller, probably will have just over 11k nova when I have the skillers.

I maxed poisen synergies
I have 1 point in curses to get lower resist
I have 1 point in each summon except revive atm
the rest of my points are in bonewall(1point in bone prison too)

General: Poison nova is your main attack weapon. However, poison nova only brings people down to 1 health. To finish them off, what u need is to cast another nova, teeth/spear/spirit them, or use the fire golem, (the golem has a holy fire aura). What you do generally to all opponents is:
1. Lower Resist them.
2. Poison Nova them.
3. Finish that last health point.*( more on this in advanced section)
One important note is that the weakest resistance for most people is usually poison. Usually with just one good nova is enough to bring most of them down to 1 health almost instantaneously. Keyword being most.

PUB DUELING:

Here are various strategies versus other character classes with a little sub section regarding honour duelling at the end.

It is essential you get enigma for pub duelling. Without teleport, youâ€™re as good as dead.

Barbarians:

WW Barbs: The only WW barbs what are of concern to you are the ones that use BOTD weapons. In general, with your max block and Bone Armor, you can tank them. Just stand there and spam nova. BOTD users are a bit more dangerous due to the damage they inflict. But all you have to do is move around and spam nova, not much work needed.

Frenzy Barbs: Same as above. Just lower resist them and spam your nova.

Berzerk Barbs: A bit more dangerous due to the fact that berzerk does insane magic damage thatâ€™s unblockable. Just stay out of range and spam nova.

Singing Barbs: These guys are annoying, they donâ€™t really hurt you much but they keep you stunned. Make sure you have enough fast hit recovery and spam nova =)

BvC: These tend to spam leap/tele to stun you then teleport in and try to WW you while still stunned, with 125%fcr and 86%FHR this does not work on you, just drop a nova and teleport away and they will just tele and WW into your poisen.

Throwing Barbs: 99% are a complete joke, but if you meet one that know what he is doing, just break down and cry, your only chance is to try and get him to come close to you then quickly turn around tele next to him and nova(while he is running, cant throw while running) â€“ if you just teleport straight in you will die, as with frenzy up a throw barb can keep an insane about of javelins in the air, a million times harder to avoid than a field of hammers left behind a hammerdin and hurts a lot more with the right gear

Assassins:

Martial Art Chaos WW: These can only really hurt you if you have weak bone armor and low block. Otherwise, you can tank them easily.

Martial Art Kickers: these can be painful if you have low fhr or fcr again, just like BvC but as long as you hit 86%fhr and 125%fcr you can get away from their â€˜stunsâ€™

Trapsins: Man are these dudes annoying and deadly. Make sure you keep out of trap range and lure them to you. Unless you stack lighting resist and have decent fast hit recovery, youâ€™re toast. Again with 125%fcr and 86% fhr you can just, and I do mean just, get in and out. I recommend moving slightly away until you see them following you slightly, then teleport into the middle just other other side of them, drop a nova and get out, you WILL take multiple hits. But this is the only way to win without just waiting for them to come to you.

Hybrids: These assassins do both martial and traps. Not as difficulty as it sounds since melee doesnâ€™t really hurt you and their traps are a lot weaker than pure trapsins.

Druids:

Werewolf/WereBear: Lower Resist, Nova, Win.

Rabies: This is like a fight to see who hits who first. Although your nova is range and rabies is melee. Rabies can kill yet nova only brings them down to one. But advantage is still yours since your ranged.

Wind Druids: Make sure to stay out of hurricane range. Your nova has further reach. If a druid teleports next to you, get away. Bone armor can absorb massive damage, but tornado is insane massive damage. You wont be able to take many.

Paladins:

Zeal: Same as barb strategy, although most pallys have better resists than barbs. Just make sure to keep teleporting around and spamming nova.

Chargdins: These guys can hurt. Make sure you have max block. Fast hit recovery is extremely important here. When the pally is charging you, make a bone wall to intercept it and spam nova. Repeat if necessary. Usually, I will take more than 1 hit to bring you down, so you might be able to tank them if you have enough fast hit recovery, but fear the BOTD war pike chargdins. I like to have a nice big bone wall and teleport from 1 side to the other, this makes charge a useless ability for the fight

Fist of Heaven: OMG these mofos are dangerous. Very dangerous. You will need to stack a lot of lightning resist to survive their hits. Make sure you stay out of range and summon your golem to take a few FoH hits. Use nova, then run backwards, to lure the pally into your nova. Never chase them unless you can survive their hits. Try to fight in a area crowed with monsters so the FoH will be hitting them instead. To tank these guys get at least 325 stacked lightning resist. Summoning a mini army can help a lot here, the more mobs you have the longer you can live

Hammedins: Hammers hurt. So still out of the range of it. The overall radius of the hammers are less than your nova but hammers tend to linger around and can become invisible. Never chase a hammerdin, unless you want to die. Stay on the edge of his screen and use nova.

Vindi/Templars: Dangerous mofos. Their FoH can still hurt, while their smite will also hurt. Make sure you stay far away and lure them into your nova. Use both Foh and chargedin tactics, ie bonewall and a mini army

Amazons:

Bowazons: Unless they are wearing completely godly items such as 160/60 armor plus crazy ias on other stuff, you shouldnâ€™t have problems. Since they have to stand still to shoot, tele beside them and nova them. Teleport in concentric circles to get close until you are ready for the final strike then double back, this will trick them into running onto your nova

Javazons: Lighting resist is a must. Without resist, they will own you. With resist, you will own them

Sorceress:

Cold: Frozen Orb- there range is slightly greater than your nova so make sure you get out of the way of the orb. Circle around the sorc while casting nova. They will get hit eventually. Get a lot of cold resist and slap on 2 Ravenfrosts.

Blizzard: This one hurts. Make them chase you while you continually cast nova. This is going to be primary a cat and mouse game. Get A LOT of cold resist, 2 Ravenfrosts, and a Blackoak Shield if you want to survive continual hits. Make sure your teleport is random so they cannot predict where you will be, otherwise you will land in a blizzard and die.

Fire: Fireball does massive damage, has long range, and can be shot like a machine-gun. For this sorc, you have to go straight at her, walking zig-zags, or teleport right behind her and nova. Make sure you donâ€™t get hit at close-range because it can stun you. Use 2 Dwarfstars + Rising Sun to negate them.

Big point here, summon a fire golem, and whenever you tele close make sure they are visible on your screen, this will make your golem move towards the sorc, and your golem will absorb all their fireballs, leaving you perfectly safe behind. You can make fire sorcs tear their hair out

Lighting: Although lightning does a lot of damage, it has a low minimum damage and slow casting rate. If you are able to survive a hit, then most likely, youâ€™ll win. Use Thundergodâ€™s Vigor, and 2 Wisp Projectors to completely tank them.

Necromancers: (ahh here comes the fun part)

Bone Necros: Your nemesis. The main disadvantage of the poison necro is the lack of a real range attack. The Bone necro is all range attacks. It is extremely hard to get in close and cast your nova when there are 5-6 bone spirits trailing you. Making it harder still is that they are casting spear and teeth while the spirit is chasing you, thus keeping you on the run, unable to stop and cast. More on this in advanced section.

Commando Necros: If your poison nova damage is decent, you can wipe out his army and him in no time. Skellies canâ€™t really hurt you. Theyâ€™re more of an annoyance.

Poison Necros: wooo.. same build fights are always interesting. More on this in advanced section.

HONOUR DUELING:

Note: Enigma can still be used to my knowledge, just not the teleport skill. Bramble is a viable option, though some people might complain about the thorns aura. (Seriouslyâ€¦. Itâ€™s thorns. You die to this, maybe you should reconsider your build?). The general rules apply here also. Special consideration must be given the Bone Prison. Some games allow it, some games donâ€™t. Important thing is, donâ€™t get stuck in oneâ€¦ >_<

VI. ADVANCED PvP STRATEGIES​

Despite what other people claim, there are skills needed to use a poison necro effectively. Not just spam spam spamâ€¦ though that works sometimes too. =)

Important notes:

1) Most people are familiar with Bone necros in dueling. We, poison necros are a rare breed, (hope this guide changes that). What this means is that we have the element of surprise on our side since most are unfamiliar with our skills or tactics. Most melee characters tend to run straight at you, thinking youâ€™re easy picking only to end up lying dead in Blood Moor saying â€œ OMFG!1! what the $#@$ just happened1! OMG OMG OMGâ€.

2) With bone armor + max block, you are a tank.

3) Lower resist everything.

4) Teleport is your main skill. Nova is not really a real ranged attack so you must use teleport to do what I call a â€œsurprise drive-byâ€. What you do is, you meander around your opponent looking for a opening. Once you see an opportunity, you teleport in a straight line, not at him, but to the sides of him. Cast nova, and continue teleporting in the same direction. THIS WILL BE YOUR MAIN STYLE OF ATTACK.

5) Teeth is your secret weapon. Although you do not have the synergies to make this dangerous, teeth is damn annoying. It stuns them momentarily for each teeth hit. Use this to keep them away from you. What really shines about this is itâ€™s radius.

6) When chasing someone, keep teleing until you tele in front of them and then nova, so theyâ€™ll walk into it.

7) Get a Call to Arms.

Melee Opponents: These are the easiest to kill. Unless they are using BOTD stuff or anything with crazy damage, you can just still there unmoving spamming nova. With BOTD/high damage weapon users, move around. Donâ€™t get used to being lazy. They can surprise you sometimes. After all, itâ€™s 75% block, not 100%. (Overall, these are easy pickings for you.)

Trapsins: Without stacked lightning resist, you donâ€™t really stand much of a chance. Make them come to you and your nova. Circle around her traps and be casting nova the whole time. One will hit eventually. If you get mindblasted, run away in opposite direction of the trapsin. Assassins with duel claws and weapon block can actually block your nova, so cast 2-3 novas for every 1 that you would normally cast to make sure they turn green. (Hard to kill one, yet satisfying when you do.)

Wind Druids: They will teleport on top of you and spam tornado. Since they have to be close to you in order to use their hurricane and tornado, it means they also have to get close to your nova. (Not really a hard duel, unless you make stupid mistakes.)

FoHers: Without insane stacked lightning resist, donâ€™t even bother fighting these. You donâ€™t stand much of a chance. However, if you must fight one, there are possible ways to win. Keep summoning clay golem to take the FoH for you. When it dies, make another one. FoH has a casting delay, so you should be able to judge when the pallyâ€™s gonna use it. When he uses it, you must stand still. FoH is blockable! But running will reduce your block to 33% and youâ€™ll need the full 75%. If you survive the FoH, jump in, nova, jump out. Easier said than done. (Really really hard duel.)

Hammerdins: NEVER NEVER EVER follow them for the obvious reasons. Do not let them get under you(south), because BH comes up north. The place right above the pally is the only sure spot that a hammer will be there so they will try to get you there. If you are chasing them, run/teleport parallel to them inching closer and closer until he gets to nova range. Since the range of BH and Nova is about the same, it might be risky to sneak along the edges. Thatâ€™s when you teeth the hell out of the mofo. Doesnâ€™t really hurt them that much but itâ€™s seriously doubtful they will remain standing there for a long time. (Challenging, but most duels between hammerdins and p necros are boring.)

Vindi/Templars: Smite is dangerous. But if your fcr and fhr is good enough, you should be able to tank them. Remember, bone armor pwns all melee. If they use FoH, run away and let them come to you. Their FoH is not as strong as pure FoHerâ€™s so you should be able to a few hits of them. Again you can use bone wall to halt them running, and force them to tele.(Itâ€™s either going to real easy, or real hard.)

Amazons: This includes both Javazons and Bowazons or the hybrid. All you really need is a T-God. The melee damage they do will barely tickle your bone armor. However, if the bowazon somehow is able to get one of those godly 160/60 armors along with other IAS items, it may be more difficult, but not much. Important note is that, amazons can dodge your Nova, so spam a few more than you usually do to ensure they get poisoned.(Easy kills, but youâ€™ll have to work for it.)

Orb Sorc: You guys are going to be tele-circling each other like non-stop. Itâ€™s a pretty even fight, for the speed of the nova and orb is about equal. However, the advantage is still on your side. There are such a thing known as cold absorb. Thereâ€™s no such thing as poison absorb. (Very fun to fight against, most of the time, youâ€™ll come out on top)

Blizz Sorc: Nova, tele away, repeat. Hope that they get hit when they chase you. However, if itâ€™s a weak Blizz, just hunt them down.(Quite hard to fight against because you are forced to be defensive.)
F-Ball Sorc: Fire Absorb is a must. As long as you can take 3-4 fballs, you should win. If the sorc is spamming fballs at you from screens away, summon a fire golem right in between and use the golem as a shield and walk behind it. Most sorcs are stupid and start fballing the golem. Quite amusing sometimes.

Lightning Sorc: As with all sorcs, stack those resists! Lightning is a lot harder to spam and itâ€™s slow. Most sorcs will tele on your screen and lightning you. Make sure you survive the hit. If you do, theyâ€™re dead.

Poison Necros: This is where the skill matters. You have to time your teleports so that when they nova you, you teleport over it, and land beside them to return the favour. Cast a nova then back off, right after that, rush in with a drive-by. Teeth is your friend here, keeps them away. If they teeth you, bone wall it.

Bone Necros: These are your biggest challenges. With the build I suggested, you can tank melee and resist elemental, but magic damage?? There are 2 types of Bone necros. One are the stupid ones. The other are the smart ones.(haha, guess you could say that for all classes.)
Stupid ones will use spirit and depend on itâ€™s homing ability. They tend to get so focused spamming spirits that they forget to move, thus setting himself up for a drive-by. Spear, for some reason, does not seem as effective on a poison necro. Someone confirm this weirdness. What makes the smart necros, smart, is the usage of teeth. You will have a slim chance to beat teeth using bone necros. Since teeth stuns, you can not do the drive-by, So you must depend on circling the boner to look for an opening. Try doing that with spirits and spears and teethes flying all over the place, cause like you, they can tele too. Also, unlike your own teeth which is there to keep people back, Bone necroâ€™s teeth actually hurts. (THE fight of your life)

And now the section everyoneâ€™s been waiting forâ€¦..

How to finish off that last health point!!!:

1) Another nova will finish the job. This will be most used for melee characters who are stubborn and continue fighting with their one health.

2) Teeth is weak, but itâ€™s one friggin health point. This is extremely useful because of teethâ€™s wide radius and RANGE. Most people think teeth has short range, but on the contrary, it goes quite far. Just because the teeth gets skinnier and turns into a flying white dot doesnâ€™t mean itâ€™s not there.

3) Fire Golem: This is my favourite. The holy fire aura on this baby will get the most elusive opponents. The damage is only 20-30 maybe, but like I said, itâ€™s one friggin health point to get rid of. This surprises people to most, plus itâ€™s quite humiliating.

4) Bone Spear/Spirit will work also for those who want to diversify though teeth outshines them both.

5) Most duels take place in Act 1, Blood Moor. Thereâ€™s a very interesting monster in the area, known as a quill rat. Lure them to fight in an area with a few of these buggers. Possibly to most hilarious pk youâ€™ve ever done. I spilled my coke all over my keyboard the first time I did this to someone.

6) Now, for those really really stubborn melee characters, I beat that last hit point out of them with my wand.

VII. DISCLAIMER​

Everything mentioned above is from my own personal OPINION. If there are FACTS I misrepresented, I welcome your correction.
Also, everything above came out of my own head. If you feel that in anyway I copied you, and are bitter and broken about it, Iâ€™ll give you credit for whatever it was that I so called copied.

Thanks to:
TheKbob for the guide format.
Diabloii.net for all the useful info theyâ€™ve provided.
Arreat Summit for item stats.

1. grief, yes that too
2. I have 800mana, in a long duel I might have to use 1 pot, usually use none though (with base energy)
3. yes I do like to summon amini army against FoH, it helps alot.
4.I recast it everytimg I get hit in pvp
5.I get close, so they have to move closer to just get me, then I move back, so they move forwards again, then I tele in quick, drop my packet and go

I disagree on your view of Hybrid Assassins. From the looks of things, it'll only take 2 or 3 hits to put you at one health. And with stunlocks I don't think this character's short range is going to get him out of it. Pure Bone necs have a shot cause they can run all day, but this character needs to get close to get a hit. And then there's claw block to consider...

Most duels take place in Act 1, Blood Moor. There’s a very interesting monster in the area, known as a quill rat. Lure them to fight in an area with a few of these buggers. Possibly to most hilarious pk you’ve ever done. I spilled my coke all over my keyboard the first time I did this to someone.

Click to expand...

That actually happened to me once.
The Zombie just had to have Holy Shock....

Poison Necs with a Dream Helm are also quite viable and very annoying.

Well done on the guide.
Its very easy to read, has good explainations and some humour here and there (which is more important than It sounds).

You could possibly have a Dream shield on switch, if you don't want to lose out on that. ( though your Life and Mana.. and not to forget Stamina would be lower w/o the possibly 1-2 Shield that will be replaced by Dream ( if you don't prebuff )